I asked my assistant, who is somewhat younger than I, how she spells the word. "D-i-l-e-m-m-a, of course."

My general counsel appeared for a meeting. She, of more comparable age, immediately included the "n". When I brought up the alternate view, she said, "It is wrong without the "n". I know that in my heart. I learned it that way."

Wanting to know the story, I sought the wisdom of the crowd (aka, the Internet). I found interesting theories there. There is no etymological reason to suggest that "dilemna" is correct. The Greek origin of the word is apparently lemma, which clearly lacks an "n".

But Wordwizard goes on to present many examples of "dilemna" from the near past and further back. The commenter who produced these noted:

I did note with some interest that all the 19th-century quotes I found . . . seemed to have their origin in publications from the U.S. Northeast (New York, Pennsylvania, and Connecticut), so there is a chance that this is the area in which the errant spelling was born. . . . .

[T]he nonstandard spelling was not just used by doofuses and the ignorati, but by very respectable folks . . . in journal articles, newspapers, magazines, etc., all of which I assume had editors to catch this type of thing. Well, it seems, many editors were similarly misinformed.

My best guess as to how this came about . . . is that on the model of such words as condemn, column, indemnity, and solemn someone mistakenly substituted an N for an M in a popular 19th-century school spelling book or guide and the misspelling propagated. It’s hard to imagine how, other than with a scenario similar to this, such a spelling, which appeared in no dictionaries, could have so thoroughly infiltrated the system and been so convincing to so many people who normally should have known better. But until a smoking gun is found, no one will be able to say for certain how this came about. In the mean time, I would definitely rate this up there as a great English orthographical mystery.

Finally, I had dinner tonight with a close boyhood friend who grew up with me in New York. He, without hesitation, used the "n", and we both remember being corrected in spelling bees when we failed to spell the word this way.

To return to my press guy, after a bit of back and forth on all this, he cried, "Uncle!"

"...For the Democrats, including the three leading presidential candidates...maneuvers in Iowa and New Hampshire, the classic dilemna was posed: Do you want a big issue for the upcoming campaign or will you take..."By: Thomas Oliphant|Date: Dec 23, 2007 http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2007/12/23/americas_energy_future/

Where did Tom Oliphant grow up? Answer: "He is a native of Brooklyn, a product of La Jolla High School in California, and a 1967 graduate of Harvard." http://www.bookreporter.com/authors/au-oliphant-thomas.asp

I am one of the international students that had the pleasure to meet you and listen to your presentation a few months back at the Fuqua School of Business. Funny, enough, my French education has always taught me "dilemne". But it appears that nowadays, the French too use "Dilemme"! Funny...

Spell Check in Outlook, Firefox and Google do not recognize "Dilemna" and suggests "Dilemma" as a correct word...I am going to start using the word "Predicament" until clear resolution in the dilemma delimna is reached.

Paul:Well of course it’s spelled differently in New England. During my 5 years there I could barely find a soul who knew to place the comma (or the period) INSIDE the quote marks, as is proper 99% of the time. Seems they were still addicted to the King’s English. And in PA, at least in Western and Central PA (where I spent 7 years) they’ve omitted the present tense of “to be” from the vocabulary (e.g. “The linens need washed.”)

I’m just glad to be in the South (for all of a month now) where no such predilections exist beyond the steadfast belief that in its history, Charleston has been occupied by “two foreign countries: England during the Revolution and the North.”

And having grown up in the Midwest (of your generation), I learned “dilemma” – as well as the notion to look for opportunities within the same.

Seth: I would refudiate dilemna. I grew up in the NYC area and literally have no recollection of ever seeing it spelled with an "n". Fascinating history, though.

Winnie: I guess then if some of us are going to lie about our age, we should stick with "dilemma," the alternative being a dead giveaway...

Bob: Paul, your post reminds me of a question I sought back in 2006. Is it health care or healthcare? I did a quick post on it then and it has been an active post via Google searches ever since. So which is it? Here it is:http://healthcarebloglaw.blogspot.com/2006/10/is-it-healthcare-or-health-care.html

Dear Paul and fellow readers,As you might well know, the Northeast of America was settle with some the most educated people of the world in 17th century. Most were well studied in Latin, and anybody who knows Latin knows the suffixes -mni -mnus -mna -mnas as in alumni. Sorry English idiots but delemna is a latin word. Having two m's is only logical in English to maintain a short vowel sound for the proceeding e. Highly illogical we don't maintain the Latin spelling, don't you agree? As you, I was taught dilemna as being a Latin based word in Connecticut. And a fellow teacher from Delaware also agrees with this. Of course we teach the TOEFL to foreign speaking students and the Latin section maintains Latin based suffixes. So thank you for telling me we are teaching our students wrong!

I am an Australian, the other day I wrote an email, in which I described my "dilemNa" a colleague proof read it and said, you have a typo, it's dilemMa. Now, I pride myself on being a fairly good speller and I disagreed with her, sadly the dictionary disagreed with ME. Speaking with other colleagues it appears that the more hmmm senior members of work remember being taught the word with the N not the M......I am ASSuming this was taught around 40 years ago (gosh I am that old???). Mind you, I was also taught the opposite of organised was DISorganised, not UNorganised. What about others?

I will be 27 in January 2011, and I am reasonably well-educated, an avid reader, and a product of likewise parents - I never knew it was spelled dilemma. I feel sure that I've always learned dilemna and only recently has the word in print stood out to me. I find it hard to believe that I could have persisted in this misspelling and not had this dilemma, as it were, exposed. It can't just be an isolated older generation patch, nor limited to the Northeast US. I grew up outside of Washington, D.C. and spent my teenage years in Charleston, SC [not the best education, but I did attend a Magnet HS before leaving at 15]. I went to university in Britain and achieved a First Class Honours BA. This is just so strangely fascinating.

I'm a 22 year old from the Midlands in the UK, and have always been taught to spell it dilemna. I hadn't even seen it spelt with a double M until very recently, and i just assumed that was an American alternate.

Absolutely shocked to see dilemna isn't in the dictionary, i've always prided myself on being an excellent speller.I don't think i can bring myself round to spelling it "dilemmma" though, it just seems so crude.

Late to the discussion, but: I am 48 years old, raised in southern California, educated at Catholic schools K-12 ... and it was ALWAYS "dilemna". Absolutely certain on this point. That's the spelling we were taught, and I was (then, at least) an awesome speller. There's no chance I've been somehow misspelling this word on my own all these years, so either ALL of my teachers got it wrong -- how likely is that?! -- or else there are two spellings available for the word. Could "dilemna" be a more British thing, somewhat akin to "sabre" vs. "saber"?

I found your web page among others only today when I learned that the spelling "dilemma" (had to type that three times to get it right -- fingers keep reaching for the "n"!) is now considered correct by most folks. Weird.

It's DILEMNA. Some idiots decided to spell it the way it's pronounced instead of correctly. The same people insist on using 'positivity' when the proper word is 'positiveness." Boy do we miss good old-fashioned schooling!

However, there is a small but persistent use of "dilemna" in literature - Jonathan Swift used that spelling. However, this miniscule evidence of usage does not explain our absolute certainty of correctness - I half-jokingly submit this as evidence that some of us have slipped sideways from a parallel universe where our spelling IS correct.

I'm 28, and I've always believed it was spelled dilemNa. It's driving me crazy now that I'm seeing differently. I want to figure out a way to research who was taught what - their ages, their schooling, where they grew up...

I'm 18, raised in suburban Boston, and I spent the first seventeen years of my life convinced it was dilemna. No idea where I learned it. I would've sworn I had memories of reading it that way, too. Dilemma still looks wrong to me, I prefer not to use it.

I just graduated college in Southern Indiana and was born and raised here. I was taught "dilemna" and didn't realize it was wrong until a coworker asked me how to spell it, and I said with an "n". Suddenly we both felt it was wrong and googled it. She, too, thought it was with an "n" for a second.

I am 52, and toinight my 24 year old asked me how To spell dilemna. I told her with an "N" as i was taught in the Compton and Los Angeles Unified School Districts.It seemed strange to her, so she googled the word, finding it dilemma. I was surprised, confident I'd spelled the word correctly for her. I told her to look it up in an on-line dictionary. It was spelled with dilemma, but ways noted as an updated spelling. I knew I had spelled the word correctly I am notcrazy. I am glad to see there are others here defending the word spelled with an "n".

Tonight, I showed my husband what I thought was a typo in our church sermon notes, insisting that dilemma was spelled dilemna. I acknowledge we "n" spellers must be incorrect, but at least we know we are not crazy!!!

Besides, why would a common misspelling be so counterintuitive? I mean, I certainly don't pronounce it with an n.

For the record, I am 24 and was educated in public schools in Washington state.